Knock-down furniture having interchangeable and replaceable elements



Apnl 8, 1958 s. LIEBSON 2,829,707 KNOCK-DOWN FURNITURE HAVING INTERCHANGEABLE AND REPLACEABLE ELEMENTS Filed July 13. 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet l 76 I INVENTOR.

SIDNEY L/EBSON.

ATTURNEK Apnl 8, 1958 s. LIEBSON 2,829,707

KNOCK-DOWN FURNITURE HAVING INTERCHANGEABLE AND REPLACEABLE ELEMENTS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 15. 1955 IN VEN TOR. S/DNE) L/EBSON.

United States Patent KNOCK-DOWN FURNITURE HAVING INTER- IOIIiIEANEIEABLE AND REPLACEABLE ELE- Sidney Liebson, Bronx, N. Y.

Application July 13, 1953, Serial No. 367,389

4 Claims. (Cl. 155-191) The present invention relates generally to articles of furniture, and is particularly directed to knoc'kdown articles of furniture having interchangeable and replaceable elements.

At present, in thefurniture industry, considerable expense is incurred in handling operations prior to sale to the consumer. The furniture is conventionally manufactured in finished form at the factory and there carefully crated for transportation to a distributor or retailer. It is there necessary to uncrate the furniture for display and sale, whereupon the furniture is again crated for delivery to the retailer or consumer. Obviously, substantial amounts of labor and materials are expended in these operations, in addition to the considerable handling of the furniture often resulting in damage thereto. When an article of furniture is damaged prior to the ultimate sale, it must either be sold at a loss or returned to the factory for repair. Further, conventional furniture is not adapted for ready change in style and size according to the current fashion or desire of the owner, it being necessary to completely renovate the article to effect the desired change.

Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a knock-down article of furniture which is so constructed that the furniture frames themselves combine in their knocked down condition to provide a crate into which the elements of the entire article may be placed for storage and transportation. An allied object of the present invention is to provide an article of furniture having the foregoing characteristics and which is adapted to occupy a minimum of space in its knocked down condition. Obviously, the expense of crating materials and transportation would be substantially reduced. And this holds true to a greater extent if the furniture should be delivered in knock-down, compact condition to the ultimate consumer who may readily a assemble the parts as a finished article of furniture.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an article of knock-down furniture in which the parts are prefabricated and largedly interchangeable so that if one of the parts becomes damaged, it may be quickly and easily replaced without affecting the entire article. Coordinately, various parts may be replaced with other parts of different style from time to time, depending upon the dictates of fashion or the particular configuration and ornamentation desired.

The present invention also contemplates the provision of modular articles of furniture so that a plurality of such articles may be used individually or together, as desired, for effecting different purposes. For example, a single module or section may be employed as a single chair, and a plurality of such sections may be used to form a love seat or sofa.

In one embodiment of the present invention, which is illustrated in the drawings and which will be described hereinafter in greater detail, an article of furniture comprises generally a band having detachably secured leg members, and a back frame connected to the band, so

Patented Apr. 8, 1958 2 that seat and back cushions may be supported, respectively, on the band and back frame.

Still a further object of the present invention is to provide a knock-down article of furniture of the type described which is simple in construction and durable in use, which is effective for its intended purposes, and which can be manufactured and sold at a reasonable cost.

Other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon reading the following specification and referring to the accompanying drawings, which form a material part of this disclosure.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangements of parts, which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter described, and of which the scope will be indicated by the .appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a front perspective view showing an article of furniture, namely a single chair, constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a front perspective view showing a love seat constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the article of furniture shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a front perspective view showing a sofa constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a partial, front perspective view illustrating the interchangeability of parts of the present invention.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 6-6 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 7 is a front perspective view showing the frame elements of the present invention.

Fig. 8 is a rear view showing the back cushion frame of the present invention.

Fig. 9 is a fragmentary perspective view showing a pair of frame elements connected together for use as one article of furniture.

Fig. 10 is an exploded view showing various elements of the present invention.

Fig. 11 is a perspective view showing frame elements adapted for use as a crate.

Referring now more particularly to the drawings, and specifically to Fig. 1 thereof, the embodiment of the invention shown therein comprising a chair, generally designated 20, having arms 21 and 22, leg members 23, 24, 25 and 26, and a seat 27.

The leg members 23 and 26 extend upwardly as at 30 and 31 and have their upper ends connected together by a horizontal member 32. Similarly, the leg members 24 and 25 extend upwardly as at 33 and 34 and are connected together at their upper ends by a horizontal member 35. The horizontal member 32 may be formed integrally with the extensions 30 and 31 and the leg members 23 and 26, as by bent plywood or other suitable material, and thus provide an inverted, U-shaped member. The horizontal member 35, extensions 33 and 34, and leg members 24 and 25 are also preferably fabricated of bent plywood to form an inverted U-shaped member. With the U-shaped members arranged in upstanding, parallel spaced relation with respect to each other (Fig. 7 a substantially rectangular band 40 is arranged horizontally between the U-shaped members. The band 4i) includes front and rear portions 41 and 42, and side portions 43 and 44, the front portion 41 having its opposite ends in abutting engagement with the inner surfaces of leg members 23 and 24, and detachably secured to the latter, as by bolts 45 and 4c. in like manner, the opposite ends of the rear portion 42 are detachably secured to the leg members 25 and 26. The side portions 43 and 44 of band 40 are provided with through apertures 48 and 49, for purposes appearing hereinafter.

Inthis manner, the inverted U-shaped members are I rigidly connected together by the band 40-, the U-shaped members being adapted to serve as arm frames and the band as a seat frame. A back frame, generally designated includes a pair of parallel spaced uprights 51 and 52- arranged with their lower ends 53 and interiorl-y of the band or seat frame 4t} and adjacent to the rear portion 42 thereof. On each of the upright lower ends 53 and} 54 is a V-blocl; or wedge 55 and 56 (Fig. 10), which are adapted to be secured in abutting engagement with the inner surface of the rear band portion 4-2 by bolts 57' and 58. Thus, the uprights 51 and 52 will incline upwardly and away from the band 40. Extending transversely of the uprights 51 and 52 intermediate the ends thereof is a cross member 60 having its opposite ends 61 and 6212xtending laterally beyond the uprights. The cross member 60 is arranged on the front or anterior surface of the uprights 51 and52. andfixedly secured thereto by bolts 63 and 64, the cross member ends 61 and] 62 extending in front of, respectively, the side extensions 31 and 33 and below the horizontal members 32 and 35. The extending ends of cross member 60. will abut the forward surface of the arm frame members 31 and 33 to rigidify the back frame. A second cross member 65 extends between the uprights 51 and 52 and is secured anteriorly of the latter by bolts, or other suitable fastening means 66 and 67.

As seen in Fig. 6, a cushion assembly, generally designated 70, includes a spring section 71 and a cushion '72. The spring section 71 is of substantially the same size as the rectangular band 40 and is provided with rear corner cutout portions 73 and 74. The spring section 71 may then be superposed upon the band 40 so as to rest upon the front, rear and side portions of the latter. It is seen that the lower ends 53 and 54 of uprights 51 and 52 will be received in the spring section cut-out portions 73 and 74. Thecushion 72 may conform to the shape of the spring section '71, or may be of less depth, and will rest in horizontal position upon the spring section.

Arranged to lie against the back frame 50 is a back cushion 75 which may be upholstered with material similar to that of the seat cushion 72 and which is provided'with side members 76 and 77 and a top member 73, which members combine to form a three-sided frame (Fig. 8). Extending between the side members 76 and 7 7 are a pair of parallel spaced members 79 and 86, which may rigidly be secured to side members 76 and 77, to define therebetween a recess 81. A second pair of parallel spaced members $2 and 33 extend between side members 76 and 77 adjacent the lower ends thereof, and define therebetwcen a recess 84. As seen in Fig. 6, the back cushion '75 is adapted to be positioned against the back frame 5% with the recesses 81 and 34' receiving the back frame cross members 65 and 60, respectively. The back cushion 75 will thus be held in vertical position by the cross members 65 and 60 and in lateral position by the U-shaped arm frames.

To complete the chair of Fig. 1, it is necessary to attach upholstered panels to the arm frames and band In Fig. 10 are shown inside and outside arm panels and 91, and top and front arm panels 2 and 93. While any suitable attaching means may be employed for holding the arm panels in place, the side band member 43 may be provided with apertures 48 for receiving fasteners se cured to the outer arm panel 91. The inner arm panel 9i) is provided with an upper corner cut-out for receiving the back frame cross member 60 and may be secured to the arm frame by nails or other suitable securing means. Similarly, the top and front panels 92 and 93 may be secured to the frame members 32 and 30, respectively, by any suitable fastening devices. As both arm frames and their respective panels are identical, it is believed sufficient to describe only one.

When it is desired to employ the present invention as a love seat or sofa, one of the U-shaped arm frames may be eliminated and leg members 98 substituted therefor. In Fig. 10, itwill be seen that the leg members 98. extend only between the band 40 and a horizontal supporting surface (not shown), so that a pair of such bands may be arranged in horizontally disposed side by side relation without arm frames therebetween. In order to firmly support the back frames employed in a sectional article of furni ture, the cross members 6i) are terminated at the outer surfaces of the uprights 51' and 52' to permit contiguous disposition of the latter, as seen in Fig. 9, and secured between the uprights 51 and 52' is a vertically disposed triangular board or plate 1% which has its lower end 101 adapted to rest upon a horizontal supporting surface (not shown). Thus, the plate 1% firmly supports one side of the back frame in the absence of an arm frame. it will now be understood that each of the sections of the love seat of Fig. 2 are supported by four legs, in addition to the plate 100, so that the sections may be used individuaily or together.

In Fig. 4 is illustrated a preferred form of sofa construction in accordance with the present invention, wherein the end sofa sections 11f! and 111 are substantially identical with the love seat sections 105 and 106, with the exception of the elimination of the front legs 98. Thus, the sofa sections and 111 are supported at three points by the outer legs 23, 24, 25 and 26, and rear inner legs 98 (not shown). The center section 112 is also supported at three points, the front central leg 113 and a pair of rear legs (not shown). With the use of a triangular plate 100 between each pair of adjacent sections, the three-legged construction has been found satisfactory under practical conditions of use.

In Fig. 5 is shown a top arm panel 115 of different construction and appearance from that described heretofore. By the present invention, a fiat arm panel, such as at 92, may be replaced by a curved arm panel 115 by merely detaching the former from the U-shaped arm frame and securing the latter in its place. Obviously, the style and appearance of the article of furniture may be substantially altered by such interchanging of parts.

In- Fig. 10, the U-shaped arm frames are arranged in inverted condition parallel to and spaced from each other. The band 40 is disposed vertically and extends between the arm frames so that the member 41 of the band 40 abuts the undersurface of the horizontal members32 and 35 of the arm frames, the member 41 being secured to the arm frames by bolts or other securing means 116.

It will be seen that this arrangement of arm and seat frames forms a crate-like container, the members 41, 32 and 35 providing top walls, the members 43 and 44 providing side walls, the members 30, 31, 33 and 34 providing front and back walls, and the member 42 providing a bottom wall. The crate-like structure may be advantageously employed to enclose the back frame, cushions, arm frame panels and all other elements necessary to the complete article of furniture. Thus, the arm and seat frames combine to form a crate suitable for storage and transportation of the remaining parts of the article of furniture. Further, the article will require a minimum of space in its knocked down condition.

From the foregoing, it is seen that the present invention fully accomplishes its intended objects and is well adapted to meet conditions of practical use.

Although the present invention has been described in some detail by way of illustration and example for purposes of clarity of understanding, it is understood that certain changes and modifications may be made within the spirit of theinvention and the scope of the appended claims- Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1 In an article of knock-down furniture comprising a pair of spaced, inverted L J-shaped side frames resting upon a horizontal surface; a substantially rigid, annular horizontally disposed seat-supporting band extending between the legs of each U-shaped side frame and detachably secured to said legs intermediate the upper and lower ends thereof, a back frame having its lower end detachably secured to said seat-supporting band interiorly thereof with its upper end inclining away from said band, an anterior cross member on said back frame having its opposite ends extending laterally therebeyond, each of the extending ends of said cross member abuttingly engaging the interior surface of the adjacent one of said side frames, a seat cushion assembly removably resting upon said seat-supporting band, and a back cushion constructed and arranged to lie against said back frame andconformably receive said cross member.

2. An article of furniture according to claim 1, the yoke of said U-shaped side frame providing an arm rest support and the free ends serving as legs when in set-up condition, said seat-supporting band being vertically positionable between said U-shaped frames and detachably secured to the yokes thereof to provide a crate for enclosing the other elements of said article.

3. In knock-down sectional furniture of the type and constructed and arranged to rest on said supporting surface, and an arm frame extending upwardly from the leg members on the distal side of each end section.

4. An article of knock-down furniture comprising a pair of inverted U-shaped side frames, the yoke or bight of said frames when set up, constituting arm rest supports, a substantially rigid annular band, at least one perimetral edge of which lies in a single plane, a back frame, a seat cushion, a back cushion and a plurality of upholstered panels; said annular band being disposed selectively in' two positions relative to the said side frames, namely a first position when the furniture article is set up, in which first position said annular band is disposed horizontally between the legs of each side frame, and is detachably secured to each leg of each side frame to maintain said side frames in spaced relation and to provide a supporting ledge for a seat frame; and in a second position when the article of furniture is disassembled, in which second position said annular band is vertically disposed substantially medially between the legs of each of said side frames and is detachably secured only to each yoke to maintain said side frames in spaced relation and to constitute a packaging crate for said back frame, cushions and panels.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Bott Sept. 30, 1952 

